Gala match for Coco!

The Frenchman has warned that he doesn’t plan to change his game, and that’s for the best!

At the same time, Moutet is excellent at what he does, his game is unusual, sometimes frustrating from the outside because he tries things that are a bit absurd, but that’s also what makes him brilliant. First of all, he was reassuring physically against Zheng after the scare in the first round, he moved well and I think he’s close to being at 100%. That’s good, but he’s going to need much more than that tomorrow against Carlitos Alcaraz. The Spaniard is a bit less of a “killer” and robotic than Sinner overall, he can give away free points and get frustrated on an off day; he’s unplayable 95% of the time, whereas I’d say Sinner is at about 99%. There’s also a weird thing, which is that against Alcaraz guys tend to play their best match, the Spaniard makes his opponents play well.

He got himself out of a tricky first-round match; we were expecting to see Hanfmann play very well as usual against top players, and that’s exactly what happened! The German held up superbly before logically fading over the long run, and Alcaraz said his playing style bothered him a lot. I still find him much stronger in his “bad days” than before, he’s gaining experience and learning to better handle this kind of match where he’s not playing his best tennis and has to fight in a different way. Beating him is becoming even more complicated. This will be the first meeting between Coco and Alcaraz, two of the most mobile and fastest players on tour, on top of having exceptional touch at the net. The rallies could be legendary.

I don’t know to what extent Moutet’s game can work or not at all, I’m not sure about that, even if I tell myself that Alcaraz could get frustrated if the match has no rhythm and he starts overforcing. I kind of want to believe in the Frenchman taking a set before Carlito settles in and finishes the job!